The Golf Warehouse plans to build retail sites for other sports companies

By Allison EnrightEditor

Former CEO Brad Wolansky becomes the head of Powered by TGW.

Brad Wolansky

The Golf Warehouse hopes to use its e-commerce operational knowledge launch branded retail sites for other companies.The e-retailer about a month ago quietly launched Powered by TGW, which project leader Brad Wolansky describes as an affiliate program that allows small sports management companies and smaller retailers to create a revenue stream through e-commerce.

Wolansky left his job as CEO of The Golf Warehouse, a unit of Redcats USA, No. 33 in Internet Retailer's Top 500 Guide, to head of up the Powered by TGW project, he tells Internet Retailer. He says The Golf Warehouse is quickly ramping up the program, which he says will provide the e-retailer access to new customers. "We are building scale under this model as fast as we can," he says.

Powered by TGW is reaching out to what Wolansky calls golf and soccer “entities”—those include retailers, leagues and management companies—that lack online retail sites. Powered by TGW builds a branded e-retail site for that business and sells merchandise stocked by The Golf Warehouse. Powered by TGW runs all web site, fulfillment and customer service operations for client companies, Wolansky says. The companies receive an affiliate fee for any sales generated through the branded site.

Wolansky says Powered by TGW has inked deals with four sports entities to launch more than 30 branded e-retail sites. One client, Wolansky says, is Austad's Golf, a golf equipment retailer with nine stores in the upper Midwest. Austad's Golf had no e-commerce functionality on its web site. Now consumers who visit austads.com can buy online. "This is a way to extend their reach that they may not have found otherwise," Wolansky says.

Wolansky says all contact points with online shoppers, including shipping boxes, invoices and e-mails, are branded as Austad's, even though they are coming from The Golf Warehouse. Calls to customer service will be answered by Golf Warehouse staff, who will answer the phone as Austad's agents.

Taking over Wolansky’s old job, at least temporarily, is Jay Berlin, CEO of The Sportsman's Guide, a Redcats spokeswoman says.